Quick Start Guide

Curators for each exhibit upload a collection of images (jpg, jpeg, and png) and their associated metadata. Curators then have a few different options on how they can present that content to their users. By leveraging custom metadata facets, browse categories with curatorial descriptions, and curated feature pages, exhibit curators can develop more engaging interactions with their collections.Establish exhibit creation workflow

Develop an ‘in-house’ exhibit creation workflow. Only site administrators can create exhibit stubs, so you will need to create a ‘request’ mechanism for people to contact you regarding setting up an exhibit and most institutions include a review process or checklist before exhibits are published.

Ex. At Cornell, there is a governance document that outlines what types of projects are considered for Spotlight exhibits and expectations for exhibit owners (including copyright and accessibility). People interested in creating an exhibit contact a committee via email for approval and curator documentation is shared.

Ex. At Stanford, there is a request form and, if approved, a Zoom training session is scheduled between site administrators and exhibit owners. There is also a pre-publication review that happens before exhibits are published to their site.

Once approved, exhibit owners can navigate to their site by logging into their institution’s exhibits page and clicking on the login link.

There are detailed pages related to building exhibits underneath the “Building an exhibit” heading on the Spotlight wiki, but below are some essential tips:

General Tips:

• There is no need to publish your exhibit to see how it will look – this is built in to exhibit creation. As an exhibit creator, you are seeing how the exhibit will look when published, prior to publication. (IMAGE)

• Include a contact email for the person who should receive feedback emails about the exhibit. (IMAGE)

• Check the box to show background image in masthead to display the masthead image you have selected for your exhibit site. (IMAGE)

• Publish your browse categories and your about page(s) before you publish your exhibit, so you can see Browse and About in the top exhibit toolbar. (IMAGE)

Home:

• This is the page all users land on first when ‘entering’ your exhibit. (IMAGE)

• A combination of text and images is best. Use an eye-catching image or widget that features images from the exhibit.

About:

• Add information about your exhibit, including at least one contact.

• Remember to acknowledge staff who worked on the exhibit.

Browse:

• Use Browse pages when you want your users to browse through curated subsets of your exhibit's items. (IMAGE)

Feature Pages:

• Use curated feature pages to showcase and provide additional context for your collection. You can embed exhibit items, as well as videos and 3rd party content not available in your exhibit's search index on feature pages. (IMAGE)